A comprehensive computer network security policy is ordinarily designed to achieve specific goals, such as preventing outsiders (e.g., external hackers) from accessing the network; allowing only authorized users into the network; preventing internally sourced network attacks, usually by enforcing accountability for actions or usage; and to provide different layers of access for different categories or kinds of users. To be effective, the security policy should achieve each of the above goals in a way that does not disrupt business or make authorized access prohibitively difficult. A variety of network security systems and methods for achieving these goals are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,826,698; 6,763,469; 6,611,869; and 6,499,107.
A number of different network protocols have been developed to address the need for identifying and authenticating users who want to access a network. For example, Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is a flexible protocol used to carry authentication information, which can include identities, passwords, or predefined security keys. EAP, however, is not a transport protocol; rather, it typically operates on another protocol that behaves as the transport, carrying the authentication information between the client and the authenticating authority. By way of example, EAP may operate on the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) protocol that is commonly used to communicate between a network device and an authentication server or database. Acting as a transport for EAP messages, RADIUS allows a network device to securely pass communication of login and authentication credentials (e.g., username/password).
Another well-known transport mechanism is the point-to-point protocol (PPP) which is commonly used by Internet users when they dial into a remote access server point-to-point link. Built into PPP is a Link Control Protocol (LCP) that establishes a link layer connection and can optionally negotiate an authentication protocol to authenticate users requesting network access.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology is widely-used today for increasing the bandwidth of digital data transmissions over the existing telephone network infrastructure. Other types of Layer 1 transport mechanisms in use include Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) and WIMAX. In a typical DSL system configuration, a plurality of DLS subscribers are connected to a service provider (SP) network through a Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), which concentrates and multiplexes signals at the telephone service provider location to the broader wide area network. Basically, a DSLAM takes connections from many customers or subscribers and aggregates them onto a single, high-capacity connection. The DSLAM may also provide additional functions such as routing or Internet Protocol (IP) address assignment for the subscribers.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol networks have traditionally been utilized for communications between DSLAM devices and web servers such as Broadband Remote Access Servers (BRAS). A BRAS is a device that terminates remote users at the corporate network or Internet users at the Internet service provider (ISP) network, and commonly provides firewall, authentication, and routing services for remote users. The ATM protocol is an international standard in which multiple service types are conveyed in fixed-length “cells” over point-to-point network connections. Data packet cells travel through the network from the user network interface (UNI) through the ATM switch to the network node interface (NNI) through a process called Virtual Path Identifier/Virtual Channel Identifier (VP/VCI) translation.
SP access networks are being migrated away from ATM protocol networks to Ethernet networks. Ethernet is a technology that originated based on the idea of peers on a network sending messages in what was essentially a common wire or channel. Each peer has a globally unique key, known as the Media Access Control (MAC) address to ensure that all systems in an Ethernet have distinct addresses. Most modern Ethernet installations use Ethernet switches (also referred to as “bridges”) to implement an Ethernet “cloud” or “island” that provides connectivity to the attached devices. The switch functions as an intelligent data traffic forwarder in which frames are sent to ports where the destination device is attached. Examples of network switches for use in Ethernet network environments are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,850,542, 6,813,268 and 6,850,521.
A widely-used prior art protocol for authenticating DSL subscribers connecting through an Ethernet access network is known as the Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE). The PPPoE protocol, which is described in RFC 2516 (“A Method for Transmitting PPP over Ethernet”, February 1999), basically specifies how to connect Ethernet users to the Internet through a common broadband medium such as a DSL. But because PPPoE is point-to-point connection-oriented, as opposed to multipoint IP over Ethernet, it suffers certain inherent drawbacks that have made PPPoE increasingly unattractive as a transport protocol as new services such as voice and video are layered onto SP networks.
Thus, what is a needed is a new authentication mechanism for subscriber broadband aggregation networks that rely on Ethernet technology.